Saturday in the Arts is a comprehensive, in-depth feature on a topic, trend or personality impacting the Quad-Cities, posted every Saturday morning on QuadCities.com.   The day before the state of Illinois entered Phase 4 of reopening, affecting his longtime acting home of Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse, Moline’s Tom Walljasper was filming scenes as a farmer in small-town Iowa. A full-time actor, Walljasper had not acted since “Kinky Boots” closed at Circa in March, and both he and his wife Shelley were cast in small parts for a TV pilot, “Complete Bull,” filmed in June and July (with... Read More

Lynne Stukart of LeClaire can’t sing the praises of a staggeringly huge virtual choir loudly enough. But that makes sense, since for Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir 6 – with 17,562 singers from 129 nations – they literally were told to “Sing Gently.” At a time when we could all use some peace, togetherness and harmony, Stukart, a veteran flute teacher, was thrilled to be part of the online musical project. She’s a big fan of Whitacre, the popular choral composer and his ambitious virtual choirs – a project that started in 2010 with individual videos from 185 singers from 12 countries,... Read More

On Friday, you can gaze up at the summer night sky and watch the stars in wonder. Join well-known local storyteller Brian “Fox” Ellis this Friday, July 24 at 8 p.m. for a fun, family-oriented evening of American Indian Star Stories at The Twinflower Inn, 110 N. Olson Street, Bishop Hill. Safe social distancing guidelines will be in effect. Fox is an author and storyteller of Cherokee heritage. There will be drumming songs and a chance to sing long. Patrons are encouraged to bring a lawn chair, bring a snack, and bring a friend. The evening is sponsored by the Twinflower Inn and Fox Tales International.... Read More

A little more than two weeks after the Mississippi Valley Fair announced it would scale back its offerings this year, including no big-name grandstand acts, on Tuesday it said it would cancel the 101-year-old tradition altogether. The fair, at 2815 W. Locust St., was scheduled for Aug. 4-9. “We have continued to work closely with the Scott County Health Department to ensure that if we put on a fair this year we met all the requirements of the principles shared by both organizations,” MVF general manager Shawn Loter posted Tuesday on Facebook. “Health leaders determined our safety plan was... Read More

Ok, so about 50 percent of you hate Donald Trump. And, about 50 percent of you hate Joe Biden. But, probably about 90 percent of you, whether you like his music or not, think Kanye West is pretty freaking insane. This week, Ye, as the kids like to call him, was more crazy like a fox with the brilliant public relations stunt of announcing he’s going to run for president. Never mind that he hasn’t formally filed to run, and never mind that he’s way past the deadline to do so or be on the ballot in a vast majority of states, so technically, he has no chance. The fact that he announced it at... Read More

The Quad Cities has a new remedy for all that ails them, as Dr. San Guinary brings his Creature Feature T.V. program to the Saturday night airwaves at 11 p.m. starting on July 4 on COZI 6.3. The one-hour program, hosted by Doc and his cast of cutie nurses and wacky characters, showcases a wide variety of horror and science fiction schlock classics, as well as locally produced material and shorts from around the globe. The show, which sometimes gets a little risqué with its cheesy comedy, is aimed at teenagers and adults, with lots of pop culture references and in-jokes from the last 40 years,... Read More

During this unprecedented, scary time of Covid-19, it seems apropos that the first indoor live theater in the Quad-Cities since the shutdown will be the spooky ghost story, “The Turn of the Screw,” next month at Moline’s Black Box Theatre. The 60-seat theater (1623 5th Ave.) will open at half capacity on July 16 and close the 19th. “It is a short run,” said director Lora Adams, “but the set was almost completed and the actors’ schedules have changed since March, so we are only able to do the four-day weekend.” Actor Matt Walsh and Kayla Jo Pulliam will bring the creepy tale to life... Read More

No doubt about it, these have been some tough times we’ve been going through. But even through all of the negative events going on, there has been some good news, and that’s what we concentrate on here, in our What’s The Good News? column on QuadCities.com and KWQC-TV6’s “Paula Sands Live.” So, what’s the good news for this month? Creature Feature Creeping In The Quad Cities has a new remedy for all that ails them, as Dr. San Guinary brings his Creature Feature T.V. program to the Saturday night airwaves at 11 p.m. starting on July 4th on COZI 6.3. The one-hour program, hosted by... Read More

What if “Love Is Blind” met “Tiger King?” It’s Netflix and maybe not so chill, as Tristan Tapscott takes another swipe at the “Tiger King” phenomenon in the latest episode in his new comedy series of short videos, “Oh Geez, It’s Tristan Again…” for QuadCities.com. Watch and enjoy, as Tristan proves himself a multiple-threat, taking on the roles of Joe, Carole, and, yes, MORE, in this hilarious video, and stay tuned for more episodes of “Oh Geez, It’s Tristan Again…” on your site for fun, free, local entertainment and features, QuadCities.com!  Read More

Like most entertainment around the world during coronavirus, the Levitt AMP Galva Music Series moved online this summer. All recipients of a 2020 national grant for a free summer music series will be part of a virtual free broadcast, all available on levittamp.org/virtual. Galva’s entry kicked off the series on June 20, with performances by Chicago Farmer and Edward David Anderson. “Each recipient of the Levitt AMP grant will be featured in one concert over the course of the summer as part of the national series — we just happened to be the first,” said John Taylor of Cambridge, president... Read More